Cisco announced Monday its intent to acquire a privately held software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) company Viptela Inc., based in San Jose. Viptela will expand Cisco’s SD-WAN portfolio with increased functionality and simplicity delivered through the cloud.
With this announcement, Cisco will be able to accelerate the path to developing next generation SD-WAN solutions, by combining Viptela’s cloud first network management, orchestration and overlay technologies with routing platforms, services, and SD-WAN capabilities from Cisco.
Cisco is committed to Viptela’s product offering and architecture as well as existing Cisco Intelligent WAN (IWAN) and Meraki SD-WAN solutions. The acquisition of Viptela also supports Cisco’s strategic transition toward software-centric solutions that deliver predictable, recurring revenue.
Cisco will acquire Viptela for $610 million in cash and assumed equity awards. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of calendar 2017, after having completed all of the customary closing conditions and regulatory review.
Viptela provides a compelling SD-WAN solution that simplifies management, increases agility and reduces costs of interconnecting dispersed enterprise networks. Its network management, orchestration and overlay technologies make it easy to deploy and manage SD-WAN. This cloud-first approach also aligns with Cisco’s Digital Network Architecture (DNA) transition to software-driven, automated networks that are more flexible, responsive and dynamic.
Managing the network is becoming more complex as applications move to the cloud, employees become more mobile and billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices are added to the network. For businesses, this means how branch offices are connected must evolve. Customers are turning to SD-WAN solutions to help manage and orchestrate their WAN deployments, to cost effectively improve access to both the cloud and their corporate network.
“Viptela’s technology is cloud-first, with a focus on simplicity and ease of deployment while simultaneously providing a rich set of capabilities and scale. These principles are what today’s customers demand,” said Scott Harrell, senior vice president of product management for the Cisco Enterprise Networking Group. “With Viptela and Cisco, we will be able to deliver a comprehensive portfolio of comprehensive on-premises, hybrid, and cloud-based SD-WAN solutions.”
Cisco has been providing SD-WAN technology and services to customers for several years; the Cisco IWAN solution delivers an on-premises SD-WAN solution for customers needing advanced routing features and other advanced network services, and Cisco Meraki provides a cloud-based solution for customers needing maximum simplicity and unified threat management functionality in their SD-WAN solution. “Acquiring Viptela will enable us to expand our portfolio, with increased functionality delivered through the cloud,” wrote Rob Salvagno, a Cisco executive in a company blog post.
Since 2012, Viptela has been developing solutions to help customers anticipate and manage branch connectivity across their networks. Their cloud-first approach to SD-WAN includes cloud orchestration and management of branch networks, as well as overlay technologies. Customers can centrally manage the WAN with a real-time dashboard view to monitor the health of their network and improve connectivity.
With Viptela, Cisco can offer customers more choice in their enterprise branch offices and WAN deployments, with a compelling SD-WAN solution that is easy to deploy and simple to manage. Together, Cisco and Viptela will be able to deliver next generation SD-WAN solutions to best serve all size and scale of customer needs, while accelerating Cisco’s transition to a recurring, software-based business model.
The Viptela team will join the Enterprise Routing team within the Networking and Security Business led by senior vice president David Goeckeler. After the acquisition closes, Viptela and Cisco engineering teams will be working closely together to enhance Cisco’s SD-WAN offering and ensure continued support for customers.
